We’re not kitten you with this one.
If you live in one of the 43 million homes that care for at least one feline, these new findings might give you “paws.”
As many as one in 15 cats carry a nasty parasite causing as infection nicknamed beaver fever — and one in five of those strains can infect humans.
When humans catch it, beaver fever can cause painful gas, cramping, nausea and watery or greasy floating diarrhea up to five times daily.
Here’s what new research suggests about which cats are more likely to have it, and which regions in the U.S. have the highest rates of beaver fever in cats.
What is beaver fever?
Medically known as giardiasis, this intestinal infection is caused by Giardia, a microscopic parasite that gets passed through poop.
There are many different kinds of Giardia, each with a different species they specialize in infecting, including cattle, pigs, dogs, cats, coyotes and beavers. Yet only a minority of Giardia types can pass from animals to humans.
Often, people get infected by swallowing tainted water or food that contains the parasites. After the parasite was found in beaver-dammed streams and lakes, Giardia got its beaver fever nickname.
Don’t just blame animals though. Giardia passes easily from human to human through improperly washed hands that have been contaminated with poop during activities like changing diapers or sex.
About half the people who get Giardia never exhibit symptoms. To find out if you have it, doctors will need to run a special stool test. It can clear on its own, but doctors may prescribe anti-parasitic medications.
It’s also important to note that getting Giardia from your pet is unlikely, and other animals — like birds and chinchillas — are more likely to spread Giardia to people, the CDC says.
What kind of cats usually develop this
Researchers had the unenviable task of sorting through nearly 158,000 cat poo samples from 49 states, Washington D.C. and even five Canadian provinces.
Male cats were about 20% more likely to have Giardia compared to female cats and were also roughly 2% more likely to have a Giardia type that could spread to humans.
Age and sterilization status also played a role. Overall, kittens less than a year old had the highest rate of Giardia, but unfixed kittens had 24% lower odds. For cats over a year old, however, the pattern reversed: unfixed cats had over a 60% higher chance of having Giardia.
With increasing age, cats were less likely to have a Giardia type that could spread to humans.
The authors suggest that the connection between very young cats, unfixed males and increased Giardia could be related to more time outdoors and roaming.
Notably, summer months had the lowest Giardia detection, while winter had the highest amount of cats with Giardia that could spread to humans. This parasite doesn’t survive long in hot, dry environments and thrives in cold, wet ones.
Authors also compared cats from different regions around the US. They found that Midwestern cats had 36% higher chance of having Giardia compared to Southern cats, while Northeast and Western cats didn’t differ significantly from Southern cats.
To avoid getting Giardia from your dog or cat, the CDC recommends wearing gloves and washing your hands after touching poop, cleaning pet items frequently and litter boxes daily, bathing infected pets to remove fecal matter from their fur and limiting pet access to potentially contaminated outdoor water and shared areas.
